Australian Story

Betrayal | Hannah Grundy

Monday October 14, 8:00pm

Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales

When high school teacher Hannah Grundy clicked on a suspicious-looking email three years ago she had no idea where it would lead or the impact it would have on her life.

She saw dozens of shocking images, digitally altered to superimpose her face on naked women’s bodies, and row upon row of text describing ways to harm her.

Through a process of elimination Hannah discovered who was behind the sickening cybercrime.

It was a betrayal close to home.

What followed was an epic fight for justice and a dramatic court showdown.

Airs Monday October 14, 8:00pm (AEDT), on ABC TV and ABC iview.

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The Two of Us | Yael Stone + Jack Manning Bancroft

Monday October 21, 8:00pm

With a starring role in hit TV show Orange Is the New Black, Australian actor Yael Stone had a green card and Hollywood at her feet.

“It’s a passport to so much opportunity. She could have done anything at that point, for sure,” Orange co-star Uzo Aduba says.

But then she very publicly and dramatically declared she would tear it up.

“I thought, wow, that’s a very bold statement. Did she need to say it so publicly? Because maybe she’ll just want to go back on that,” friend and actor Claudia Karvan says.

While some thought it was self-sabotage, the one person who immediately backed her was childhood schoolmate-turned-partner Jack Manning Bancroft.

The pair first met as five-year-olds, but a chance encounter 25 years later blossomed into a partnership of purpose.

“I’ve never felt like an idea was too big with Yael. And I never felt crazy, I think that’s probably the magic that unites us as a couple,” Jack Manning Bancroft says.

Jack is no stranger to risking everything – in his role as CEO of Indigenous not-for-profit AIME, he pushed himself to the point of hospitalisation trying to expand globally.

“He collapsed at an event … and it was like, 'Oh my God, is my son going to actually die here?’,” says Jack’s mother, artist Bronwyn Bancroft.

The dynamic pair now juggle parenting two young daughters while pursuing separate passion projects – Yael working in climate change and Jack further expanding AIME’s purpose – but with a shared mission to make the world a better place.

Australian Story | The Two of Us: Yael Stone and Jack Manning Bancroft will air on Monday 21 October at 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.

Producer: Winsome Denyer.

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The Big Lap | Remembering Fiona MacDonald

Monday October 28, 8:00pm

In memory of much-loved TV personality Fiona MacDonald, Australian Story revisits her 2023 episode, which followed her and her sister Kylie’s “Thelma and Louise”-style road trip around Australia to raise awareness of motor neurone disease.

Fiona had been diagnosed with the disease in 2021, at the age of 64, and had been advised not to make the trip but she was determined to make the most of her time left.

When Fiona died earlier this month, her sister Kylie posted a final message from Fiona on Instagram, which ended with the words, “I carry your love and laughter with me and hope you’ll remember mine.” This encore screening is in honour of that memory.

Airs Monday October 28, 8:00pm (AEDT), on ABCTV and ABC iview.

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Holding Ground | Chris Henggeler

Monday November 4 8:00pm

In one of the toughest parts of Australia, a barefoot grazier is running a bold regenerative experiment that might land him in jail.

For the past three decades Chris Henggeler has dedicated his life to transforming an eroding, desolate, fire-prone property in the Kimberley into an oasis of green paddocks and fresh running water.

A secret of his success – feral donkeys.

“We’re using animals as a landscape management tool to mulch, fertilise and prune the vegetation, build soils, rehydrate the landscapes,” Chris Henggeler says.

Despite the support of ecologists and a local Indigenous resident, the pastoralist has found himself on the wrong side of the law.

The WA government has deemed the feral donkeys a pest and Chris is defying an order to shoot them. A court battle is days away.

Despite the property never turning a profit, and a lack of creature comforts, Chris’s longsuffering family supports his grand land care passion.

“If someone had said, do you know that you’re going to be spending seven odd years thinking about how to keep a few donkeys alive, I would have laughed at the idea,” son Bobby Henggeler says.

Chris says he will go to jail before shooting the donkeys.

“If the science is not on my side, I deserve to be locked up. And if the science is on my side, well, I deserve an apology,” Chris Henggeler says.